March Volunteer Tax Assistance Center opens for business

  • Published
  • By Mr. Gabriel Verhage
  • March VITA Tax Center director
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  The March Volunteer Tax Assistance Center officially opened its doors at a ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday. Located in Bldg 417, directly behind the Honor Guard building., their hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week until tax season slows down.

You are invited to drop by their office to pick up a questionnaire that will help expedite the filing of your returns or ask any tax-related questions.

The March VITA Center director offers this helpful tax tip:

If you are a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces and you travel more than 100 miles away from home in connection with your performance of services as a member of the Reserve, you can deduct your unreimbursed travel expenses as an adjustment to income on line 24 of Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, rather than as a miscellaneous itemized deduction. Include all unreimbursed expenses from the time you leave home until the time you return home. The deduction is limited to the amount the federal government generally reimburses its employees for travel expenses. For more information about this limit, see Per Diem and Car Allowances in chapter 6 of Publication 463. (You are a member of a Reserve component of the Armed Forces if you are in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Coast Guard Reserve, the Army or Air National Guard of the United States or the Reserve Corps of the Public Health Service.)

If you have Reserve-related travel that takes you more than 100 miles from home, you should first complete Form 2106, Employee Business Expenses, or Form 2106-EZ, Unreimbursed Employee Business Expenses. Then enter on Form 1040, line 24, the part of your expenses, up to the federal rate, included on Form 2106, line 10, or Form 2106-EZ, line 6, that is for Reserve-related travel more than 100 miles from your home. Subtract this amount from the total on Form 2106, line 10, or Form 2106-EZ, line 6, and deduct the balance as an itemized deduction on Schedule A (Form 1040), line 21.

If you are sufficiently confused, don't panic! We are here to help.

Let the experts at your VITA center take the confusion out of completing your tax return for free.